Mystery of "John Doe" Bones Needs to Be Pieced Together

Like the song goes: "Dem bones dem bones, doncha just love 'em?"

While the suitcase of human bones found by the railroad tracks in Oceanside on March 27 are being treated one way by the police, the Medical Examiner’s office is taking a contrary view.

After the suitcase of bones was featured on the television news, a man called Oceanside police and claimed the bones used to belong to him, and were previously owned by a chiropractor in the 1970s for specimens in classes.

The man who called said he was transient at the time and that the doctor had left the bones on the sidewalk as a “giveaway” after his house burned down, according to Sgt Matt Christenson of the Oceanside Police.

While the bones do not seem to have apparent related signs of trauma, and the police are satisfied with the explanation, Gretchen Geary of the Medical Examiner’s Office states that they are treating the bones as a “John Doe” until some DNA evidence comes back.

There are issues with the bones that do not make sense, says Geary. An anthropologist examined the bones and reported that they belong to a male in his 20s or 30s who died about 20 years ago. This means the bones could not have been used in medical school in the 1970s.

Further, the bones are not of the type used by schools as specimen examples. The bones are not drilled for putting together by screws and bolts.

The skull and pelvis are also missing.

On April 3, a box with a human skull inside was found by a restaurant in Clairemont. There is no word yet if the skull belongs to the Oceanside bones, but the coincidence of the two finds are related curiosities.

It all does not add up – bones sitting around the tracks for years are suddenly found, missing a skull, and then a skull is discovered in the same week. The bones are said to have been used in medical school in the 70s, yet the bones are not 40 years old, but 20. A transient man just happened to be wandering around for years with a suitcase of human bones “left” on the sidewalk by a burned down house?

This is a case that needs a Sherlock Holmes or Columbo to “piece” back together.